Short of people — not ministers — to embrace the Tories (7)
I believe the answer is:
laconic
'short' is the definition.
(synonyms)
'of people not ministers to embrace the tories' is the wordplay.
'of people not ministers' becomes 'laic' (laic can mean relating to the laity).
'to embrace' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'the tories' becomes 'con' (abbreviation for the Conservative Party).
'laic' placed around 'con' is 'LACONIC'.
(Other definitions for laconic that I've seen before include "Col Cain (anag) - expressed in a few words" , "Saying few words" , "like a man of few words" , "Succinct, terse" , "In short" .)